


Mortally, We Find Common Ground

by CoverFireGoddess880 (orphan_account)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt, Episode: Ignis spoilers, Gen, Heavy Angst, Mild Blood, Unresolved Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 10:13:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14788586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/CoverFireGoddess880
Summary: Ignis and Ravus discuss Noctis on many different levels, relating themselves to the fate that awaits the True King.





	Mortally, We Find Common Ground

**Author's Note:**

  * For [G_Ivanov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_Ivanov/gifts).



> For G_Ivanov :) I hope this is what you were asking for!
> 
> I really hope you like it!!! This was fun to write!

This wasn’t at all what he had planned, and when it came down to strategy, that stamped a great gaping hole in Ignis’s clever deal with mindful preparation. As he runs a dirty hand through his wet, now-disheveled hair, he curses himself for making such a blatant error in his calculations.

 Always known as the failsafe of the group, Ignis was relied on by his companions if ever someone’s plan fell awry - which it often did, if he had no say so in said conduct. Having been raised in the very foundations of trust, duty, and responsibility, he often considered his role as the prince’s advisor more vital than his own life.

 As he fought his way out of the smouldering ruins of Altissia, his normally careful and cautiously observant mind was cluttered with worry and fear for the life of his prince. Since the rite had begun, Prince Noctis’s faithful retinue was wrought with terror and uncertainty, clearly anticipating how colossally disastrous this battle would become.

 As the lives of millions hang in the balance among the war-torn city of water, Ignis watches on under the altar, exhausted by his previous indifferent scuffle with the high prince of Tenebrae. His brows furrow in both confusion and a fleeting victory over his newfound ally as Ravus clings to the body of his lifeless sister on his knees.

 Shout after agonising shout is enough to beckon sorrowful feelings in Ignis he didn’t think he could feel for a turncoat prince; regardless of their personal struggles, Ignis had a brother to save.

 But as he tries to walk past the man, he flinches and pulls back on reflex as Ravus hooks onto his ankle.

 “ _ You  _ did this!” He yells, equal amounts of horror and anguish awash in both blue and purple eyes. He draws his sword and nearly thrusts into Ignis’s face, but the advisor is quick to dodge to the side and unhooks his leg. “That  _ boy _ ,” Ignis winces at how pitifully the man lies recumbent upon the rain-soaked holy ground, pointing at the unconscious Noctis like he’s some kind of wretched creature. “He’s responsible for my sister’s death and always will be!”

 “Enough…” Ignis mumbles, stumbling over toward his prince. He’s just as overcome by grief for the fallen Oracle as her own brother, and yet astounded that Noctis is still alive. He kneels to the cold stone and places his palm atop Noctis’s chest, feeling for his heart. “We had no fault in this… No one did,” he says, voice just barely a whisper. Gathering Noctis into his arms, he softly calls his name, trying to rouse him.

 But he sleeps as if dead, and even though he knows he’s only sleeping, Ignis still feels that all-too-familiar sting of eternal separation he did when news of the attack on Insomnia breached his ears.

 He shuts his eyes and leans into Noctis, hugging him close. 

 Amid the soft pitter patter of heaven’s tears washing away the shed blood of Lunafreya, Ignis listens unwittingly to Ravus’s cries for a miracle. Nose buried inside Noctis’s clothes, water trickles down the advisor’s cheeks when he recognizes the overwhelming odor of blood has stained his friend’s shirt.

 The Oracle’s innocent blood has been spilled and yet, even in death and no longer present in this world, a part of Lunafreya follows Noctis wherever he goes.

 It’s too bittersweet of a revelation, and when Ignis really breathes it in and remembers his own devotion to Noctis, he’s grateful to be alive. 

 To stand beside his king when she could not.

 “My… dear sister,” Ravus laments, brushing a lock of golden hair from Lunafreya’s cold, pale face. Ignis lifts his head and glances back as the man kisses her forehead and lays her gently upon the stone altar. “All you ever wanted… was… was…”

 “Peace,” Ignis finishes ultimately, “happiness... what she wanted was unattainable in this life. These two…” He presses a kiss to Noctis’s damp bangs. “I know there were so many things they aspired to be - to become! But fate had other ideas, and we are merely pawns to be played in a never ending cycle of war and turmoil. Man’s hatred… I’m afraid escape doesn’t exist for the most important players…”

 Ravus stands abruptly and nearly hurls himself, fist raised, at the prone prince. “He’s no king, he shall never be king!!”

 Ignis trips him, catching him by his robes and pulling him down to the ground. “I highly doubt that,” he says respectfully, but from all the thrashing below him, he knows Ravus won’t take his words no matter how vulnerable he is.

 “Empty, meaningless words!” Ravus shouts, barely hinging on the rasp of a man on whom exhaustion and tragedy had taken their toll. “The gods are mistaken! What does this boy have to offer this world but faulty vows and a head full of incompetence?!”

 “More than you could offer, Ravus!!” Ignis declares with a sharp whip of his head, leaning Noctis gently up against the crumbled remains of the altar. “Men like you are the reason we require a savior… Your treason against the kingdom of Lucis is unforgivable-!” He stands to face Ravus, a disheveled mess they both present.

 “ _ My  _ treason!? Have you no couth?” Ravus hangs his head, arms finally limp at his sides. He’s visibly shaking. “I assure you, my actions were merited - the very foundation of my cause for joining the imperial army was no less virtuous than your loyalty to Lucis! Everything I did, I did for the sake of my sister!”

 “By rejecting the reality that her future husband is to be crowned king?”

 “Her life was in jeopardy! What choice did I have? And now…” Dropping to his knees once again, his face goes soft as he kneels beside his sister’s body and takes her hand. “She’s gone…” He’s crying over her, the cruelty that finally claimed her having pierced his heart to the point that even if he were to come face to face with her killer, he’d show no strength for revenge.

 For but a moment, Ignis feels the twinge of remorse, a knot in his stomach that eventually keens into full sympathy.

 If he had lost Noctis, given the choice, he’d have gone with him.

 After an incredibly, unstable silence… “You may take your ‘king’ and leave now.”

 Ignis looks up and watches as the sullen prince stumbles down a flight of sunken altar stairs with the Oracle in his arms.

 “Heaven knows we would all be better off had he never been born…” He gently lowers the Oracle’s lifeless body into the lipid waves, dark blue washing over her as if to create new life in vain. “And be sure to tell Noctis,” he says, nearly spitting the prince’s name.

 The slits in Ignis’s eyes harbor suspicion and strangely, his full attention. For what reason, he’s not certain, but he listens anyway.

 Heterochromic eyes spark malice, regardless of Ravus’s words to him earlier. He’s unforgiving, but Ignis understands why. “May he suffer long, and painfully… for every single one of his consequences…”

 

 XV

 “I know of a path to the king and the Oracle. Stay close - and don’t slow me down.”

 Lucky for Ignis, Ravus was offering him a way to get to Noctis before the empire did, and blasted them all to oblivion. Although he had mentioned Noctis in the words he spoke, it burned in him how unwilling he was to even approach the prince.

 Ravus  _ was _ a good negotiator, though, and for all his faults and anger issues, he could always be relied on in the thick of dissension when goals were laid out in similarity. Thus, his role as imperial high command suited him quite nicely.

 The king’s advisor really had no other choice but to follow and Ravus knew that. But it wasn’t that Ravus held contempt for him - he barely knew him. No, most of the ill attitude that Ravus put forth was merely a mask for his personal disgust at how loyally Ignis served his king.

_ “More like a chittery parakeet than anything,” _ Ravus sneers under his breath before Ignis yanks on his robes and pulls him down beside some building rubble. There’s an imperial mech just a few feet away, so this gives them perfect cover for the time being. “What are you-”

 “Shh!” Ignis purses harshly, ducking out of the line of sight. The mech isn’t moving anywhere fast. “We need a plan.”

 “Amateur incompetence. I already have one,” Ravus boasts.

 Ignis glowers. “And you insist on rubbing it in my face?”

 “Naturally. It takes many years of experience and military expertise to strategize at a moment’s notice. Living in the supposed paradise of the Crown City, I doubt you would possess any understanding of this fact, ‘ _ boy _ ’.”

 Naturally… he’s right, Ignis thinks, having the humility to realise he’s in such a situation where he has to trust someone other than himself. It’s quite a chilling thought. “You called me ‘boy’,” he says regardless, even as they begin to outwit their opponent’s cold, sensory eyes, sneaking through every corner and crumble of foundation.

 “Well? Aren’t you?” Ravus smirks, pressing himself flush with a wall, watching the enemy’s movements. “As is that pathetic princeling you swear fealty to?”

 “You, of all people, are deserving of the Crown’s judgement. Your tongue should hold more respect for Noctis.”

 Ravus mutters a growl, forcing down every wicked retort the caged part of his mind could blurt out in defense of his past. Ignis couldn’t even begin to understand where the root of all his bitterness stems from, and Ravus doesn’t feel like explaining it to him.

 

 XV

 Unable to move any further along Altissia’s streets laid to waste, a bead of sweat rolls down Ravus’s pale face as he lays back exhausted against more rubble in an historic courtyard. “Wait,” he forces, and Ignis pauses in his steps up to a platform where they could get a perfect view of Titan, fighting off the imperial forces.

 “We must hurry! The prince doesn’t have much time! Have you forgotten our mission?”

 “I have not… forgotten. I need to rest for a moment…”

 He paws at his magitek arm, cold, heavy, and not at all suited for long-winded gaps of running. He eyes Ignis sharply, who’s staring rudely and yet curiously at his false appendage. “What are you staring at?”

 Meeting his eyes, Ignis pushes his glasses up his nose. It’s almost like he’s pompously sneering at him, in Ravus’s highly pessimistic mind. “Just wondering…”

 “Wondering, what?” Ravus cocks a brow, annoyed by how humorously Ignis skirts around his prying.

 “From whence did your intentions come when you received that prosthetic? In what state of mind did you suffer the consequences?”

 Ravus shakes his head. “Irrelevant.”

 “Surely it was not for the sake of providing safe passage for the king?”

 Scoffing, he answers with all the discontent he’d kept leashed inside his bittered soul. “Whyever would  _ any  _ of  _ my  _ actions support  _ him _ ? If a frog croaks, don’t you stop to listen? If a hatchling takes flight on its own, don’t you praise it? But when a five-year-old, incompetent, spoiled, irreparable boy is chosen as king, you do not salute him! You argue why! You raise the question - loud as you can - why must I stand to lose everything, when all I have is nothing?!”

 Ignis is silent as the high commander rants out all of his frustrations.

 “In the end, Noctis shall have his throne, his people, his jewels and gold and crown… by the Astrals, he’ll even have all of you!”

 “The Oracle… your sister, you’ll have your sister,” Ignis makes a moot point, and all Ravus can do is spit in his direction. Useless.

 “No. My sister is losing her life… slowly but surely, I shall lose her, too. Noctis has everything, and yet he still has no grasp of what enormous weight he has come to hold on his shoulders…”

 “You are wrong, Ravus,” Ignis says softly but firmly. He stands with his shoulders squared and broad, presenting courageous and loyal character. Ravus sees them both as weak, but the words never come. “Noctis does understand, which is why he came to Altissia on so urgent an errand. He came to save the Oracle - your sister, because he loves her as well. He tries… he does, and in the grace of the gods, he shall face his destiny. Certainly not with a smile, but with a courageous heart, and determination fierce enough to tame a wild beast, he will confront the fate laid out before him. You know this in your heart, Ravus… I know you do.”

 “But, Regis never…”

 Ignis forces Ravus to shake his hand. “Noctis respects and remembers those who’ve sacrificed so much - all for his sake, and he won’t let their sacrifices be in vain…” Jade eyes meet the hopeless void behind those heterochromic ones. “Especially yours.”

 Feeling barely enough strength in his heart to pick himself up, Ravus slumps off the wall and grips his scabbard with shaky fingers. “Well then… we’d best not waste any more time,” he says sympathetically to his broken spirit, and looks ahead to the coming disaster, the day he’ll finally swear fealty to Noctis, his king.

 The day he shall breathe his last.

**Author's Note:**

> :')


End file.
